[texhax] January 2007 TUG news: journals, software, conferences, elections

[Karl Berry]

Dear TeX users,

Some TeX and TUG news looking back on 2006 and forward to 2007.

- Journals:
  TUGboat 27:2, the TUG 2006 proceedings, is in the holiday mail and
  should be delivered soon, if not already.  It is also available online
  to members at https://www.tug.org/members/TUGboat/tb27-2.  This marks
  the completion of the 2006 publications, all mailed during 2006.  We
  are happy to be on schedule, and plan to stay that way -- the first
  issue for 2007 is already in the pipeline.
  
  Issue 2006-4 of The PracTeX Journal was also published recently,
  with an introduction to MetaPost, a review of notable LaTeX resources,
  an article on creating your own document class, and much more.
  http://tug.org/pracjourn/
  

- Software:
  We expect the next software release, tentatively named TeX Collection
  2006-07, to include new versions of MacTeX for MacOSX and proTeXt for
  Windows, as well as the cross-platform TeX Live and a snapshot of the
  CTAN archives.
  http://tug.org/texcollection/
  
  TeX Live is currently in the final stages of building and testing on
  the plethora of supported platforms.  At this time, we expect the
  overall TeX Collection to be available in February 2007.  It will be
  shipped on DVD and CD to all 2006 members.  New members for 2007 will
  receive the DVD and can optionally choose to receive CD's.
  
  The TeX Collection is a massive effort, done entirely by volunteers.
  We are profoundly grateful to the hundreds of people involved, from
  all parts of the TeX world: the contributors uploading new packages to
  CTAN, the CTAN maintainers for providing a central repository to draw
  from, the people building the binaries on a wide variety of platforms,
  those doing testing and verification of the test versions (available
  now), the developers maintaining and enhancing the software upon which
  it all rests, and the user group members keeping the infrastructure
  provided by TUG and all the TeX user groups viable by their support.
  Thank you all.


- Conferences:
  The first international ConTeXt conference will take
  place in Epen, The Netherlands, on March 24-25, 2007.
  http://context.aanhet.net/epen2007/
  
  EuroBachoTeX 2007 will be held in Bachotek, Poland,
  April 28 to May 2, 2007.
  http://www.gust.org.pl/conferences/EuroBachoTeX2007/
  
  TUG 2007 will be held in San Diego, California, July 17-20, 2007.
  The theme of TUG'07 is "Practicing TeX", and we want to encourage
  practical presentations of the sort given at the Practical TeX
  conferences the last few years.  (There will be no separate PracTeX
  conference in the USA in 2007.)
  http://tug.org/tug2007/
  

- TUG election: as mentioned previously, 2007 is an election year for TUG.
  The positions of TUG President and several members of the TUG Board of
  Directors will be open as of the TUG 2007 Annual Meeting.  The
  election to choose the new president and board members will be held in
  the spring of 2007.  Nominations for these openings are now invited;
  the deadline to receive nominations is 1 February 2007.
  Please see http://tug.org/election/ for information and forms.


- Organizationally, we are happy to report that TUG finished 2006 in
  stable financial condition -- membership from the previous year has
  held steady.  Membership fees will remain the same for 2007, and the
  TUG board has approved a budget for 2007 allocating additional funds
  to TeX projects.  If you haven't already, we sincerely hope you will
  consider joining or renewing your membership in TUG or any other TeX
  user group.  If you have renewed, we are very appreciative.  Your
  support strengthens the TeX community and keeps the user groups
  viable.  The 2007 TUG renewal forms are available at
  http://www.tug.org/join.html.


Best wishes for 2007,
Karl Berry (President) on behalf of the TUG Board
http://www.tug.org/